I just tried it out and so far it seems good! I'll have to see if it will allow me to do X to Y, as there only appears to be a search term. I'll update the question after investigation, thanks for the link!
–
ColtinNov 14 '12 at 21:28

Hi, Official Nokia Response: The aforementioned "explore-maps://v1.0" app2app custom protocol is NOT SUPPORTED for 3rd party apps. We will be potentially breaking it soon and all apps that use it will flat out stop working. Do not use the aforementioned protocol in your apps. As a workaround, please either use the new MapTasks or "ms-*" app2app custom protocols instead. Sincerely, Justin Angel.
–
JustinAngelNov 15 '12 at 11:20

Hi Justin! Thanks for your response; I'll be using the MapTasks for now :) Nokia has great documentation, do you know if there is documentation available for the recommended way of launching Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive?
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ColtinNov 15 '12 at 17:45

Or any specification on what can be supplied to ms-. I found a lot of examples, but they only use "destination". And destination.name doesn't do a geo lookup (So unless I figure out the GPS of the Sears Tower I can't launch the maps app using ms-, as far as I can tell so far)
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ColtinNov 15 '12 at 19:32

To bad the new MapTask is a horrible inefficient API.
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Claus JørgensenDec 4 '12 at 13:30

@JustinAngel, that was true. Now, explorer-maps:// and maps:// both launch Bing maps on Lumia devices, even Bing maps is removed from app list in Lumia devices! Perhaps it happened after gdr3 (Amber)? Can't go back to gdr2 to verify. Either way it means we have bing maps app on Lumia devices but its hidden. Which means its crazy! To verify, send yourself an email with maps://london. and open the link in your phone from email..
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AnnieOct 24 '13 at 1:32

I couldn't find any information on if Nokia Drive subscribes to the new App2app protocols. However, the nokia based maps application has a task launcher that lets you do quite a bit. (Bing Map Task is depreciated)

HERE Launchers are simple to use APIs which enable you to launch
HERE applications from your own Windows Phone application, to perform
services provided by those applications.

The API is compatible with Windows Phone 8 devices. Additionally the
API requires the HERE applications implementing the services being
present in the device. In case the API is used without the
implementing application being present in the device, then the user
will be forwarded to the Application store for obtaining the required
application.

Currently there are three HERE applications which are providing the
services implemented in the HERE launchers API: HERE Maps, HERE Drive,
and HERE Transit.

HERE Maps, Drive, and Public Transport are available worldwide on all
Nokia Lumia Phones, and they may be available for other Windows Phones
via Windows Phone store.

Code examples (covering use cases such as the one displayed below) can be found here.